Near Bihać, in the Village Vrtoče I found a real ray of BiH history. Ethno Village Čardaklije, where it is being lived and worked the way people used to 150 years ago, right there.The brothers Radošević had the idea of recreating a rural household on this same place.

The Radošević’s are originally from Lika, a village located beneath the mountain Velebit. The Legend says that they were brought under Grmeč by an old blind man on a blind horse, to the point where a small stream, Skakavac, is falling down the cliff and commanded: “Stop here, here we will settle.” There the Radošević’s spent centuries before they dispersed in many different directions.

One of them, Ilija, stayed and built an unusually high house which the locals called “čardak” (the Ottomans used to build high watchtowers called “čardak”) and its hosts “Čardaklije”. Ilija’s son Nikola later became the owner of this lithe “house”. Travelling further down the family history lane, we learn that one of Nikola sons, Vid stepped into his father’s footsteps and stayed to maintain the possession. Until his death he worked on agriculture and the rural household.

Hundreds of years later ilija is gone, Nikola is gone, nor is Vida there, but Čardaklije remained. They are standing to defy time. They take us back to the past and give us an insight into the tradition of our ancestors, on the same place where life brought them and told “Stop here, here we will settle”.

Walking along the property I noticed details which gave me feelings of warmth and love. New, but old houses made me pause and carefully observe every nook as well as to admire the authentic architecture. The smell of freshly prepared, traditional food filled the air. Horses that moved freely around made me catapult myself from the present into another, peaceful time; away from the “modern” everyday.